Reminder Run of the Month for March - Berkhamsted Half (10:00) and 5 mile
(10:30) - Sunday 1st March

Sunday 1st March sees the annual running of the Berkhamsted Half and
Berkhamsted 5 mile runs. Any BAAC runners who would like to join us on one of
these runs would be very welcome to come back to our house afterwards for a
shower and to join us for Sunday lunch. Entries are now open either via post or
through the Runners World web site. Supporters are also most welcome to join us.
This year we have decided to charge a nominal £5 for your lunch and all the
proceeds will be donated to charity. It would be very helpful if anyone planning
to join us lets me know so we know how many to cater for, and please say if you
have any special dietary requirements.

It would be great to have a good turn out of BA runners at this well
organised event.

Prior to the event the motorway bridge course was assessed for Health &
Safety and some hedge trimming carried out to clear the pavement and the kerbs
were marked to define the course sections (500m hill section and 50/100m
recovery turn-around loops on either side).

After a briefing to marshals and runners, Steve H kindly agreed to lead the 9
athlete group comprising Marion, John T, Steve H, Steve N, Gary, Tony,
Eddie, Alan and Dennis for the warm-up jog up and down club car park twice,
whilst the 4 marshals Brian, Paul, Paddy and Harry set off to posts on the
course.

A set of dynamic drills followed for the athletes – knees up/leg extension
walk, knees up jog, heel lift and knee/leg follow through and ‘Greek dancing’ !
This exercise highlighted that there was some scope for fundamental development
again, particularly coordination skills, similar to the balancing exercise
carried out a few weeks ago.

The athletes formed up on the corner of Church Road for the hill exercise,
being split into 2 groups (‘faster’ comprising Gary & John, and the remainder
‘slower’). Some hill running technique had been presented earlier together
with elements that would be observed during the session from different vantage
points.

The athletes ran back and forth over the motorway bridge for 20 minutes, with
the game added of collecting/swapping playing card each side with marshals
(keeping best 4 in hand). The faster group followed the longer turn-around loop.

Eddie kindly led the warm down run back to the club and along/back the car
park.

A debrief on the session and prize giving for the card game was held in the
clubhouse afterwards. Feedback was exchanged on the session organisation,
coaching content, and athlete technique and performance. The general consensus
was that the session was very useful (it certainly was extremely useful to my
coaching development !) and that we should plan a similar follow up session to
monitor progress in 3-4 months time.Marion skillfully won the choccy-box
prize for the best card hand (with 3 Kings) with John in 2nd place.

I would like to thank everyone who participated, and particularly the
marshals who stood out on the chilly roadside and also processed the card game
results. I would also like to thank Steve N for helping set up the event and
Andy Eynon for help with the coaching content.

Be warned ….I am planning another coaching session soon and also some
‘bolt-on exercises’ to other events !

Joe Nolan

Harrow Hill 10k Sunday 15th Feb Results

161st in 64:15 - Petra Otto, V60 W

Well done Petra. No BA runners in this one - I was only just back from
two week's "altitude training" in Colorado and the event had sold out before I
was able to commit to it.

Roderick Hoffman

Valentines 10k Sunday 15th Feb Results

Place

Time

Athlete

Club

Category

Number

Age Grade

95

00:42:54

Jane Davies

Epsom & Ewell Harriers

VL65

102

100.97%

89

00:42:39

Ian Cunningham

British Airways A.C

V50

97

73.15%

255

00:52:49

Janet Cunningham

Epsom Allsorts

VL45

98

68.22%

77

00:41:27

Ian Payne

British Airways A.C

SM

456

65.30%

371

01:01:07

Jasvir Singh Modaher

British Airways A.C

V50

273

53.67%

10k PB for Ian Cunningham. Good age grade to - but not as good as that
of BA club friend Jane Davies. It's unusual to see an age grade greater than
100% - it flags her as being better than the best of her age.

Club parkrun results for Saturday 14th February

14Feb2015

Family & Friends

Time

parkrun

Comment

Grade

Monica

Alonso

28:23

Guildford

run #48

57%

Alan

Anderson

30:58

Gunnersbury

run #351

66%

Alice

Banks

25:40

Black Park

run #17

72%

Julie

Barclay

21:54

Bedfont Lakes

8th & 1st female finisher

77%

Ben

Chaytow

24:49

Cheadle Hulme

run #95, 10th/23

54%

Ian

Cunningham

23:36

Bushy Park

run #184

63%

Janet

Cunningham

29:04

Bushy Park

run #113

60%

Scott

Davison

22:29

Crane Park

course pb

62%

Alan

Friar

26:26

Woodley

run #153

67%

Alastair

Heslop

volunteer

Guildford

funnel manager

Chris

Kelly

21:44

Reading

run #227

67%

Kerstin

Luksch

22:20

Gunnersbury

run #128

67%

Oliver

Mathai

24:25

Gunnersbury

course pb

66%

Steve

Newell

31:08

Dulwich

park #52 (UK 50)

57%

Joe

Nolan

28:02

Black Park

28' pacer

57%

Bridget

Ruffell

31:32

St Albans

first parkrun since 2010 !

56%

Richard

Ruffell

22:30

St Albans

slowed by dog holding back for Bridget!

67%

Benita

Scaife

31:05

Osterley

run #9

61%

John

Scaife

31:06

Osterley

run #10

52%

Sreeram

Sethuraman

29:18

Upton Court

run #34

45%

Marion

Taylor

30:33

Northala Fields

run #29

56%

Steve

Taylor

23:24

Northala Fields

run #27

64%

Kimberley

Turner

29:19

Chichester

run #34

54%

Mark

Turner

29:20

Chichester

run #34

51%

There was a record attendance of 264 at Valentines Park (Gants Hill / Ilford)
but none of our runners were tempted to make the journey. The next
opportunity to run on 14th February will be in 2026. We did have several
instances of couples running at the same parkrun (though not necessarily at the
same pace):

John and Benita Scaife, after three runs in Australia, flew back in time
to drop in and run together at Osterley parkrun.

Ian and Janet Cunningham at Bushy,

Richard and Bridget Ruffell at St Albans,

Steve and Marion Taylor at Northala Fields,

Mark and Kimberley Turner at Chichester.

The outstanding performance this week was by Julie Barclay, 8th overall and
1st female at Bedfont Lakes (see below).

Ben Chaytow made the trip north to run at Cheadle Hulme and set a club best
time of 24:49. Ray Hampton still holds the V70-74 age category there with
27:20. The parkrun there has only been going for about six months and
there are still often fewer than 50 runners.

Monica Alonso is closing in on her 50 run T-shirt but with a switch of
supplier she may have to wait a few weeks. Chris Kelly could qualify for
his 250 vest by the end of the summer. Ben Chaytow is on 95.

After a winter break Steve Newell has resumed his tour of London parkruns and
notched up his 50th different UK parkrun at Dulwich, making the most of his
Freedom pass as usual!

Bedfont Lakes parkrun

I was at Bedfont Lakes on Saturday But Julie Barclay was the only
BA runner there, I guess the regular lads knew what Fridays continuous rain
would do to the course. A little report on Julie's run:

With the previous 4/5 weeks dry weather Julie Barclay said "Let's try Bedfont"
not having ran there for 8/9 months and conditions should be perfect. It
was until Friday a when the continuous rain made it sploshey and with a100
un-avoidable puddles. But not deterred Julie went for a hard run.
She shot away and was leading lady from the off plus in the first dozen overall.
Feeling good and copping with the slosh moved up on the second lap to 8th place
and remained there and 1st lady to finish in 21.54. Her best being 21.17.
Julie quite pleased with performance and time.

Thinking - had the surface conditions most likely cost her over a second per
100m?

After the run continued to run home a few miles as part of her training for
the Surrey 1/2 March 8th.

Tom Rowley

Running Shorts

Parkrun warm-up!

In addition to the monthly pacers I will be introducing an
experimental warm-up session and drills before next week's parkrun at
Black Park. This will begin at 8.30 and take about 10/15mins,
covering about 1.5k and passing through the start and finish areas.
It would be useful also to ‘first-timers’ as well as regular runners and
should help prevent injuries and also assist towards improved
performances. The meet-up place will be in front of the car park
side café, near the HQ shelter.

Joe Nolan

News for the next BAAC News Digest?

Please send items for inclusion in the
next Digest. Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at
news@barunner.org.uk.